Determination of drying parameters in vegetable and fruit drying plant: A business practice

One of the fundamental needs of people is that food should be healthy and long- lasting. Since ancient times, vegetables and fruits have been dried in the sun, even though they are not hygienic and homogeneous. Although sun drying was used more in ancient times, various drying methods have been developed with the advance ment of technology to produce more efficient, less costly, hygienic, homo geneous and high- quality dried foods. In this research study, the humidity ratio, color, taste, etc. of strawberries dried with geothermal energy in the BALKURU vegetable and fruit drying plant located in Sındırgı District of Balıkesir province were observed and the quality parameters of the dried strawberries were determined. Controllable factors affecting strawberry products, whose parameters are determined, have been revealed. The maximum, minimum and middle values of these factors were determined according to the information received from the enterprise and the experimental study was carried out according to the Box-Behnken experimental design of the Response Surface Method. Keywords: Food Drying, Geothermal Energy, Response Surface Method, Box-Behnken Design